In this paper, we investigate the representation of wind power forecasting (WPF) uncertainty in the unit
commitment (UC) problem. While deterministic approaches use a point forecast of wind power output,
WPF uncertainty in the stochastic UC alternative is captured by a number of scenarios that include crosstemporal
dependency. A comparison among a diversity of UC strategies (based on a set of realistic experiments)
is presented. The results indicate that representing WPF uncertainty with wind power scenarios
that rely on stochastic UC has advantages over deterministic approaches that mimic the classical models.
Moreover, the stochastic model provides a rational and adaptive way to provide adequate spinning
reserves at every hour, as opposed to increasing reserves to predefined, fixed margins that cannot account
either for the system’s costs or its assumed risks.
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